Although no date has been fixed for the hearing of the suit, the court is expected, in no time, to pronounce on the legality of the entire broadcast code and establish the limit on the powers of the NBC to impose sanction without following due process.
IN this report, Law and Human Rights examines the instrument that established the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC, vis-à-vis the commission’s manner of implementation of its mandates when broadcasters violate their broadcasting code, harvests reactions of media stakeholders on some of the sanctions imposed on broadcasters in selected cases between 2019 and 2023 and concludes that though the intervention of NBC in regulating the operations of broadcast stations in the country is sine qua non to detoxification of the political cum security climate of the country, the NBC, nevertheless, should give fair hearing to erring broadcasters before imposing sanctions where necessary.
BACKGROUND
In the First Quarter (Q1) of
2019, the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC, wielded its big stick against 45 broadcast stations, including the Nigerian Television Authority, NTA, African Independent Television, AIT, Channels Television and TVC News over alleged unethical conduct in their coverage of the 2019 general election.
Director-General of the NBC then, Is’haq Modibbo Kawu, had announced the sanction at a news conference which held in Abuja on March 1, 2019.
According to Kawu, the erring stations located across the various geo-political zones of the country violated the provisions of the Nigerian Broadcasting Code, and were fined N500,000 each, the highest level of sanction under the broadcasting code.
The NBC boss had explained that all stations that allowed politicians to utter abusive, inciting and provocative statements during rallies, were sanctioned even as he warned that any of the stations that continued to broadcast hate and inflammatory comments capable of threatening the security of the country would be shut down.
Mr Kawu said the commission had set up a National Monitoring System involving all members of the Board of Management of NBC to monitor stations on 24 hours basis and that the commission was working in partnership with INEC, the EFCC and the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit, NFIU, on tracking campaign financing in the country.
Vanguard reports that the commission had also, on October 26, 2020, imposed N9 million fine on three television stations— Channels Television, AIT and ARISE Television—after accusing them of engaging in ‘unprofessional #EndSARS Broadcast.
The commission had said the conduct of the broadcast stations was an ‘outrageous violation of the constitution and basic principles of fair hearing’, which could not be allowed to stand, adding that the sanction would serve as deterrent to broadcasters who deliberately fail to verify stories before they broadcast.
Although some of the broadcast stations could not be said to be operating within the limit of the broadcasting code, there have always been protests each time sanctions were imposed on the broadcast stations on the account that the NBC sanctioned without giving culprit stations fair hearing.
For instance, the Managing Director of one of the affected stations in the EndSARS protest broadcast —Arise TV, Ijeoma Nwogwugwu, had, at the time, protested on behalf of other culprits, that apart from the NBC’s press statement, “we were served letters informing us of the fine and we also got another letter inviting us to a meeting — that is the three broadcast stations. All of us were invited for the meeting. We went there, only to be told that the meeting had been suspended. No reason was given for the suspension and no date was also given for another meeting.”
NBC AND ITS MANDATES
Vanguard reports that the National Broadcasting Commission is an agency of the Federal Government created by law to assist the President to perform his function under section 39(2) of the 1999 Constitution.
Section 39 (1) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria provides for freedom of expression while subsection 2 not only grants the freedom to own, establish and operate any mass media but it also stresses that ownership of electronic media, that is radio and television, shall be by a special licence from the President.
By implication, while one can establish a print medium like newspaper or magazine without going through Mr President for a special permit, no one can run an electronic medium without first obtaining the presidential permit.
In other words, the National Broadcasting Commission is the broadcast regulator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The commission was set up on August 24, 1992, by Decree 38 of 1992 later amended as an Act of the National Assembly by Act 55 of 1999 and now known as National Broadcasting Commission Laws of the Federation 2004, CAP N11 to among other responsibilities, regulate and control the broadcasting industry in Nigeria.
The commission, in its advisory capacity to the Federal Government, regularly adopts scientific research methods to gather data, analyse trends in line with the dynamism of the industry and advise government accordingly.
It is also the responsibility of the commission to receive, process and consider applications for the establishment, ownership or operation of radio and television stations including cable television service, direct satellite broadcast and any other medium of broadcasting; radio and television stations owned, established or operated by the federal, state and local governments; and stations run under private ownership.
The commission recommends these applications after due consideration, through the Minister of Information to the President, Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces, for the grant of radio and television licenses.
According to a university don, Prof. Innocent Okoye, he said a number of factors may be responsible for special licensing of electronic media before they can operate in the country.
According to him, the broadcast spectrum belongs to all Nigerians. “To operate a radio or television station, one requires to be allocated frequencies. Government controls and allocates frequencies on behalf of all Nigerians. If frequencies are not controlled and allocated by a central authority, there will be confusion in the atmosphere.”
He also said that government all over the world earn revenue from the allocation of broadcast frequencies and the frequencies used by other wireless technologies such as GSM, for the purpose of earning revenues to provide for social services.
Besides, he said government regulates public broadcasting to ensure that it is used responsibly in the interest of the people and to ensure that the media conform to the fundamental objectives of the state.
NBC AND THE IMPLEMENTATION OF ITS MANDATES
Vanguard reports that the NBC has not been failing in discharging its duties under the law to regulate public broadcasting to ensure that it is used responsibly in the interest of the people and to ensure that the media conform to the fundamental objectives of the state.
However, what remains a big challenge is that virtually each time the NBC attempted to monitor the activities of the broadcast stations in the country and imposed sanction against erring broadcast stations, media stakeholders had kicked.
The stakeholders had always cited absence of fair hearing, equity and justice in the dealings of the NBC with affected broadcast stations.
For instance, in the latter case involving Channels Television, Africa Independent Television (AIT) and ARISE Television over the EndSARS protest broadcast, Media Rights Agenda (MRA) and the International Press Centre (IPC) had accused the NBC of turning itself into a ‘Kangaroo court’ most times when it imposed its sanctions.